My mother bought this after going to see the movie starring Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte. My mother said that seeing this movie in the late 1950s blew her mind. She thought Dandridge was a fantastic Carmen, and the music and dancing were wonderful.On the back of the LP Hammerstein says when he was a kid he went to the opera, liked the music but thought it was silly they were all singing in Italian. Listening to his version I think it's silly they're all singing in English. Frankly the toreador's song is not quite the same when it's about boxing and he says things like "punch him smack on the nose."
Nevertheless, my mother passed on the Carmen gene to me. I was brought up on Carlos Sauras' version of Carmen. The Carmen Jones version starred Dandridge and Belafonte but they were both dubbed. So the record has neither of them on it. Dandridge's career didn't pan out very well.
10 comments:
1965 wasn't a good year for Dorothy... especially from September onwards.
...in fact, it got quite bad for her!
Come on then, let's hear it. What happened to Dorothy in 1965? (You're not doing your reports anyway.)
She got a wooden overcoat.
(Yes I am: five hours yesterday, two or three today.)
And the sheriff investigating the circumstances of her death said: "Dorothy Dandridge? She was some kind of coloured singer."
She broke a lot of ground for Afro-Americans. I think this was because she looked like a white person with a light tan instead of like an Afro-American.
I've bought the DVD of Carmen Jones for me mum for Christmas.
(Get back to your reports. Seven hours is not enough.)
I'm waiting tfor the next instalment.
I'm waiting tfor the next instalment.
You know it displays the time you posted at the bottom of your comment. You're annoying. Thursday night is a good night for posting, just hold your horses.
I don't own a horse.
Hold your imaginary horses. Especially Flossy, she always gets nippy around me.
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